DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings haven’t officially pulled the plug on Darren Helm’s season, but that announcement may be coming soon.

“Well he’s not going to play hockey this year we don’t think,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said after practice Tuesday at Joe Louis Arena. “We have to get ourselves ready for the playoffs and be ready to go on without him.”

Helm has been sidelined pretty much the entire season with what was diagnosed as a slightly torn disc in his back.

After playing in his first game this season on Jan. 25 at home against Minnesota he left practice early the next day.

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“I’m trying to stay positive, I think my spirits are a little bit higher than they have been,” Helm said. “It feels better, but I still can’t really put any time frame on what’s going on.

“I’ve been skating for a while, working out for a while, working really hard,” Helm continued. “It’s just that I still feel pain, feel a lot of discomfort. When that stops … I don’t know if one day I’ll wake up and feel great or it’s going to be kind of gradual thing.”

Helm appeared to be on the verge of returning when he suffered another setback at practice on March 18.

“I don’t really have anything else to add,” Helm said. “Just going by how I feel. I’ve been feeling decent. There’s nothing else I can really add to that.”

Helm skated on his own Tuesday and continues to be day-to-day based on how he feels.

“Each day we do a little more and go by how we feel,” Helm said. “I feel like there has been a change since the last couple weeks but I don’t know what’s going on.

“I’ve been skating since they went to Anaheim (trip), I was skating by myself on the ice, just (warm-up suit), when they got back I was skating in full equipment, then I didn’t go on last trip,” Helm added. “I stayed behind to skate.”

Helm has been on the wrong end of a rash of injuries of late.

He missed the Wings’ week-long training camp after hurting his back lifting weights on Jan. 10, three days before training camp.

He hit by a puck on Nov. 2 during an informal skate in Troy, breaking an orbital bone.

Last year, on March 17, he missed the final 10 regular-season games with a sprained MCL. Then, in his first game back, the playoff opener against Nashville, he had tendons in his forearm sliced by a skate.

Line juggling

With Damien Brunner (hip flexor) expected back for Thursday’s home game against San Jose, Babcock decided to change up his forward units in hope of generating more offense.

“San Jose’s spread their group out,” Babcock said. “We need to generate, we don’t want to give up any more chances against and we want to be solid defensively and continue that way, but we’d like to generate more offense.”

Babcock moved Drew Miller up with Johan Franzen and Gustav Nyquist, while having Valtteri Filppula center a line with Brunner and Daniel Cleary.

“By doing this we can generate more offense,” Babcock said. “We feel Fil, Brunns, Clears that’s a pretty good line. Fil’s been a good centerman for us. We like what Mule’s been doing here and we’re just going to spread our lineup out and go a little bit deeper.”

Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Justin Abdelkader make up the top line.

“With the line I’m on right now, Mule’s big and strong and can play with the puck, Gus is a skilled player that’s going to get the puck and work hard,” Miller said. “I’ve just got to get out there and get the puck from the corner, get in front of the net. We’re just looking for a balanced lineup. We’ll see if it sticks, if not whatever line I’m on I’ll play the same every night.”

Filppula has struggled offensively this season after scoring 23 goals and collecting 43 assists. He’s got just seven goals and seven assists this year.

“It’s definitely been, points-wise, a real struggle this year,” Filppula said. “We’ll have to wait and see how that goes, if that helps. I definitely hope so. I feel like I’ve been playing a lot and getting chances and the puck hasn’t gone in this year. Obviously there’s still games left and we’re fighting for a playoff spot, so hopefully it can do more to help the team.”

Filppula is also in the final year of a contract that’s paying him $3 million this season. He’s reportedly seeking close to $5 million a season.

Send comments to chuck.pleiness@macombdaily.com and visit his blog at redwingsfront.wordpress.com